Robert Roberson, the primary individual set to be executed within the U.S. based mostly on the largely discredited “shaken child syndrome” speculation, filed request for a keep of execution and a petition for certiorari with the Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday.
Roberson argues that his federal due course of rights have been violated when Texas’ highest courtroom refused to think about his bid to reopen the case based mostly on “substantial new scientific and medical proof.”
The plea comes after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied his requests to both have his sentence commuted to life in jail or to have his execution delayed.
Hours later, the state of Texas had filed its personal attraction with the Supreme Courtroom, urging justices to reject Roberson’s attraction.
This handout picture courtesy of the Innocence Undertaking exhibits Robert Roberson photographed via plexiglass on the Texas Division of Prison Justice Polunsky Unit, Dec. 19, 2023, in Livingston, Texas.
Ilana Panich-linsman/Innocence Undertaking/AFP through Getty Photographs
Roberson was discovered responsible for the homicide of his 2-year-old daughter based mostly on the testimony from a pediatrician who described swelling and hemorrhages in Nikki’s mind to help a “shaken child syndrome” analysis, regardless that there’s restricted proof that it is a credible analysis.
The speculation has come beneath critical scrutiny in biomechanical research, in addition to a rising physique of medical and authorized literature. The health worker on the time additionally suspected that Nikki sustained a number of head accidents and regarded the demise a murder within the official post-mortem.
Roberson is autistic, based on his authorized staff, which impacts how he expresses feelings — a priority that additionally arose in the course of the trial.
Texas lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson, middle, at a jail, Sept. 27, 2024, in Livingston, Texas.
Prison Justice Reform Caucus through AP
Since his conviction, newly offered proof discovered that Nikki had pneumonia on the time of her demise and had been prescribed respiratory-suppressing medication by docs within the days main as much as her demise.
A medical knowledgeable who carried out autopsy toxicology stories and reexamined her lung tissue stated they discovered that power interstitial viral pneumonia and acute bacterial pneumonia have been damaging her lungs, inflicting sepsis after which septic shock, probably resulting in important organ failure.
Over 30 medical and scientific specialists have written to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, asking it to rethink Roberson’s sentence as a result of it hinged on the “shaken child syndrome.”
A bipartisan group of 86 Texas Home of Representatives members have additionally spoken in help of Roberson’s clemency request, arguing {that a} state legislation allows opinions of wrongful convictions based mostly on adjustments in scientific proof. In Roberson’s case, they imagine that the brand new proof ought to have led to a brand new trial.
In its assertion of opposition to the Supreme Courtroom on Wednesday, the state of Texas claimed that there was no violation of Roberson’s constitutional rights that will warrant intervention from the upper courtroom.
It stated that its personal courts have adequately thought-about and rejected Roberson’s requests to overview the proof, writing: “As famous by the [Criminal Court of Appeal’s] opinion on direct overview and Choose [Kevin] Yeary’s latest concurrence, ‘the tiny sufferer suffered a number of traumas’ which are inconsistent with a brief fall from a mattress or problems from a virus.”
The state urged the Supreme Courtroom to greenlight the execution, which is scheduled for Thursday.
